Tom Zawistowski, chairman of the We the People Convention, said Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s push to put Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden on the state’s general election ballot by calling a special session of the Ohio General Assembly is a “really serious problem.”
Without a legislative solution from state lawmakers, Biden’s name cannot be placed on the ballot in Ohio because the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Committee convention missed a deadline under state law for a party candidate to be certified for ballot access.
“This is the part that drives us all crazy, because the law in Ohio that’s been in place since 2010 basically says you have to tell us who your candidate is in the November general election 90 days before the election because, well, we need to print 11 million ballots. We need to prepare the machines. It’s basic math, right? Here’s the deal. It needs time. So of course the Democrats scheduled their convention for August 19, I believe, which was two weeks after the deadline to be on the ballot. Then they want to shout: “Oh, it’s unfair and it needs to be fixed,” Zawistowski explained in Tuesday’s program. editing With Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Zawistowski (pictured) noted that when Democrats tried to prevent former President Donald Trump from accessing ballots through the 14th Amendment, saying: “No Democrat did anything in their power to help President Trump overcome the 14th Amendment.”
“How unfair was it that you tried to throw President Trump off the ballot with this 14th Amendment nonsense? And what did you do? You made us fight all the way to the Supreme Court,” Zawistowski said in an interview with Democrats. “In Ohio, our Republican legislature said, ‘We’re not going to give you an exemption; We will not temporarily change the law.” And the governor, Governor DeWine, said, “It’s just wrong. This is unacceptable, which is why I’m calling a special session so we can fix this. And I said, why are we helping them? It’s on you.”
Referring to the political makeup of the Ohio House, Zawistowski said the chamber is “controlled” by Democrats who are “helped” by the governor.
“For our voivode to call an extraordinary session – we have a really serious problem here,” explained Zawistowski. “A year ago, there was a facility in Ohio called Blue 22, where we elected 67 of the 99 members of the house who were Republicans – that is, by a majority vote. Then 22 of them took bribes from Democratic unions and voted with 33 Democrats to appoint the speaker of the house. So now we have a huge Republican majority, except that the Democrats control our house. Then the governor is now helping Democrats in the House of Representatives. And we ask: “Where is our representation?” What will we get?”
Zawistowski also noted that if a special session is held to place Biden on the ballot, the General Assembly will not begin work on any other legislation “until January of next year.”
“It’s so bad… They’re literally saying we’re not going to introduce any legislation in Ohio until next January, except for a bill to put Joe Biden on the ballot,” Zawistowski said.
Regarding whether state lawmakers have reached a legislative solution to put Biden on the ballot, Zawistowski said an agreement is “questionable” because he believes Republicans “understand that the outlook for this situation is not good.”
“I have talked to many legislators over the last four hours and they understand this. They understand that the optics of this are not good. What will it look like to my voters if I don’t save Ohio’s children but aid Joe Biden get on the ballot? It will be a bit risky, but then again, politics is politics. And I don’t think I would be shocked if they actually did it,” Zawistowski added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter Ohio Star AND Star News Network. Keep following Kaitlin X/Twitter.
Photo “Gover. Mike DeWine” by Governor Mike DeWine.
